Supporting > Boilers

Vertical steel boiler

(1/3) > >>

Marinus:
Hi all,

A few weeks ago I made a vertical steel boiler.
Here's the specs:
* 1 Centre flue with 5 cross tubes
* Pressure gauge, blowdown, safety valve and regulator valve
* Working pressure 40psi
* Gas fired
* 60mm steel with 2mm wall
* Silver soldered bushings and cross tubes
* Copper brazed boiler tubes



Boiler before brazing




Boiler brazed with all my homemade fittings, including the pressure gauge ;) Notice my sloppy brazing :embarassed: First time working with the oxy- acetylene torch :LittleDevil:

First steam up went up to 50 psi and there was a few pinhole leaks :embarassed:





Pics out in the sun 8)




Finished boiler in relation to the steam engine.

The start of the gas burner.
 :cheers:

ths:
Hi Marinus,

Good looking boiler, should do the trick. That timber lagging should provide plenty of insulation. Just wondering why you chose steel instead of copper, which small boilers are generally made of? Perhaps it was due to availability. It's not stainless, is it?

Cheers, Hugh.

Marinus:

--- Quote from: ths on July 13, 2013, 08:33:28 AM ---Hi Marinus,

Good looking boiler, should do the trick. That timber lagging should provide plenty of insulation. Just wondering why you chose steel instead of copper, which small boilers are generally made of? Perhaps it was due to availability. It's not stainless, is it?

Cheers, Hugh.

--- End quote ---

Thank you Hugh, we just had steel and I didn't find any copper tube, unless I want to buy a 5m length :ShakeHead: It costs around $200 for 62mm dia. copper tube :hellno: It's just normal mild steel tube. I want to build a marine boiler using two 72mm copper pipe cuplings that costs about $2.8 or I can hear at the new hospital that thiere building if they will sell me an off- cut copper tube :shrug:

ths:
Copper will definitely be a better choice, long term. The problem with steel as I see it is determining to what extent internal corrosion has taken place, and corrode it will, but to what extent, and after how long, cannot be predicted. This is not to detract from your effort in any way, you've done a fine job. Better to go to the hospital for a bit of copper pipe than bandages.

All the best, Hugh.

tel:
I don't want you to take this the wrong way Marinus, but I have a few concerns with your boiler. You have done, from what I can see, a good job of putting it together BUT that 2mm wall thickness is a real worry, While that might well fall within theoretical spec for 40 psi there is absolutely no allowance for wasting or corrosion and would be good for only a few steamings at best.

Also, if you do get a piece of suitable copper pipe, please make sure that it is SEAMLESS as the common plumbing type pipe is just not adequate for the job.

As far as I can discover there are no regulations covering model boilers in South Africa but readers from other places should be aware that most countries do have such regulations and they really do need to be adhered to.

Might I suggest getting hold of the Australian AMBSC boiler codes and adhering to those for any future builds. Boilers built to these specs have a generous safety allowance, I know that some folk consider that they are over cautious, but this is not the case - your safety, and the safety of other must come first.

Also, there are any number of good books on the subject - quite a few of then available for free download on the net.

Be safe, my friend, and live to play another day!

 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page